


A Tiny Problem

by JustARandomIdiot



Series: Tiny!Orion fics [1]
Category: Story Thieves Series - James Riley
Genre: ALSO EVERY INTERACTION BETWEEN BETHANY AND ORION IS STRICTLY PLATONIC, Also gwen kara and owen are here but not much, Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Gen, Giant/Tiny, Hurt/Comfort, JAMES RILEY SAID THAT THEYRE BASICALLY SIBBLINGS, Kiel and charm arent v big in the story but theyre still important, SO IF ANY OF YOU SEE IT AS ROMANTIC IM STEALING ALL YOUR LEFT SOCKS, Shrinking, Tiny!Orion, also orion here lives in jupiter city, and even tho id rather deny it its important to the plot, basically orion gets some good bonding with the sanderson family, james riley has said thats where he lived after the series, shrinking au, so they arent listed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:15:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 17,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21713602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustARandomIdiot/pseuds/JustARandomIdiot
Summary: A fight with a new villain in Jupiter City leads to Orion seeing life from a new perspective. Quite literally, in fact.Updated everyday until all chapters are posted.
Relationships: Bethany Sanderson & Orion | Kid Twilight, Orion | Kid Twilight & Catherine Sanderson, Orion | Kid Twilight & Christian Sanderson | Doc Twilight
Series: Tiny!Orion fics [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1565032
Comments: 28
Kudos: 9





	1. New Villain, New Problems

**Author's Note:**

> Like I said in the tags, all interactions between Orion and Bethany are strictly platonic, I just like to write their relationship being similar to siblings (especially since James Riley has confirmed that they basically are) so no matter what happens please don’t see it as romantic.

“Who’d this guy say he was again?” Twilight Girl whispered to him, both sidekicks sneaking just behind Doc Twilight.

“The Reducer,” Kid Twilight whispered back, rolling his eyes at the stupidity of the name. What kind of name was “The Reducer” anyway?

Twilight Girl snorted. “Seriously? ‘The Reducer’?”

“I know, right? Anyway, he’s some new villain who recently appeared, so we have no idea what we’re up against, so don’t just go rushing in like you usually do, got it?”

She glared at him. “Since when do I do that?” she quietly shot back.

He opened his mouth to list off five instances off the top of his head– and that was only five out of who knows how many– when Doc raised a hand, signaling them to be quiet. Both kids shut their mouths, nodding, despite their father– or _mentor_ – not looking towards them.

Kid Twilight watched as Doc Twilight grabbed his Twilight grappler and shot it, hooking to an open windowsill that was maybe fifteen or twenty feet above the ground. Finding that it was secure, he launched himself up to the window, landing on the windowsill, then jumping right in, out of sight.

His Twilight staff in hand, Kid Twilight turned to Twilight Girl, who nodded and transformed into a Twilight grappler, similar to Doc Twilight’s. Kid Twilight didn’t like the weight of a utility belt around his waist, but with a partner who could become any inanimate object, he was glad to no longer have the need for one. He picked her up with his free hand and mimicked Doc Twilight, launching himself to the window.

He balanced on the windowsill for a moment, then jumped inside the warehouse, letting go of the Twilight grappler. As he fell, Twilight Girl transformed back into herself, the two of them landing in a crouch on their feet.

Hidden among the shadows ahead of them, Doc Twilight signaled for the two of them to come over. As usual, Twilight Girl rushed over to him without even checking if the villain was nearby. Typical. 

She was lucky that he wasn’t.

Highly doubting that he’d have the same luck, Kid Twilight looked around for the villain or any henchmen who could be working for him. Determining that the coast was clear, he hurried over to where Doc Twilight and Twilight Girl were waiting.

“Slowpoke,” Twilight Girl whispered to him, Kid Twilight giving her a well deserved smack on her arm.

“What did I just tell you earlier about rushing in before we came in here?” he hissed back, before Doc Twilight hushed both of them.

“All right, Twilights,” he whispered to them. “This is a pretty big warehouse, so we’ll have to split up to find what this guy is hiding, got it?”

The two sidekicks nodded, the three of them now sneaking off to different directions.

Kid Twilight stayed among the crates, investigating if there was anything dangerous inside them. All that he found were different parts for building some kind of machine or something, but he didn’t just brush them off as nothing; when dealing with villains, you never made careless assumptions like that. This villain was definitely building something, maybe multiple somethings given the amount of parts.

His head snapped up at the sound of Doc Twilight’s yell. The hero was on the ground, the Reducer now standing over him aiming some sort of gun at his face. “I’m only a _little_ surprised to see you, Doc!” the villain cackled, smirking.

Great, he was one of the villains that made _puns_. As if his name wasn’t stupid enough.

“Da— I mean, Doc!” Twilight Girl cried out. She hurried over, her fists up and ready to fight.

“Stand down, Twilight Girl,” Doc Twilight told her, getting to his feet. “Don’t just go attacking a villain we know nothing about.”

“Yeah, girl, this is no _small_ matter for kids like you to deal with,” the Reducer sneered. “Now scram!”

“Hey!” Kid Twilight yelled, running over. “Don’t talk to her like that!” He gripped his Twilight staff with two hands, ready to knock his weapon from his hand, but the Reducer only dodged. Kid Twilight stumbled forward from his momentum, the Reducer only laughing.

Twilight Girl grabbed a Twilight star from Doc’s utility belt, much to his protest, and threw it right at the Reducer. He was too distracted to dodge, but he simply shot his gun at the projectile.

A blue ray shot out, wrapping around the Twilight star. The Twilight star then shrunk until it was too small to even prick the Reducer, just getting stuck to the cloth of his outfit.

“Guess I’m a _tiny_ bit more than you thought you were dealing with!” the Reducer laughed, both Kid Twilight and Twilight Girl now growling at him.

Doc brought out his own Twilight staff from his utility belt, extending it so that it was almost as tall as he was. Like Kid Twilight had tried earlier, he tried to knock the shrink ray out of the Reducer’s hands. The Reducer simply dodged, before shooting the Twilight staff in front of him with his ray. The staff dwindled down in size until it became a toothpick in Doc’s hand.

Twilight Girl let out a battle cry, before slamming into the Reducer as a pickup truck, both of them crashing into the wall on the far side of the warehouse. Several crates were smashed, the gray wall now severely cracked.

Twilight Girl transformed back to normal, her fist raised to punch the Reducer, who laid against the wall. With his free hand, the Reducer grabbed her fist, keeping her from moving her arm. He lifted up his shrink ray, aiming it right at her. “Sorry to cut our time _short_ ,” he said, his smirk wide, “but I can’t have you foiling my plans.”

His finger slowly pulled the trigger.

“Twilight Girl!”

Kid Twilight ran as fast as he could. He threw his staff to the ground, doing what he could to speed up. He reached out, shoving her out of the way the moment she was within arm’s reach.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t quick enough to save the both of them. He felt the ray strike him as he continued to stumble forward, and he couldn’t stop himself from crying out in pain; it was like something was squeezing and crushing his body, and he was starting to feel lightheaded.

Too focused on how much everything hurt, he hit his head against the corner of one of the unbroken crates, and everything went black.


	2. This Is a Little Scary...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You know when you have one of those dreams that feel pretty real? Yeah...

Orion was pretty sure he was dreaming when he first woke up, because his bed was usually not this huge. Neither was his room. And the walls weren’t blue. And the layout was pretty different, too. Not to mention he felt a little lighter than usual, almost like he was floating or weightless.

Yep, it had to be a dream.

So he just continued to lay on the pillow, waiting to wake up.

Which was taking a lot longer than he expected. And nothing else was happening, which was weird, since usually by this point, something else would’ve happened in the dream.

The door opened, someone coming in. “Orion?”

He turned to the direction of the door, only to do a double take as a giant Bethany came over, sitting up. Yep, this was definitely a dream. Though usually he wouldn’t think this was weird when dreaming.

“Oh good, you’re awake.” The giant Bethany walked over, sitting next to the giant pillow on the giant bed. Orion could feel the mattress shift underneath him as she did. “So, uh, how’re you feeling right now? Mom and Dad have been _really_ worried about you.”

Being right next to her, Orion could only think about just how small he was at the moment. She was probably a hundred times bigger than he was, and if she wasn’t careful, she could easily crush him into nothing. Heck, she could easily do that if she _wanted_ to; it wouldn’t be hard for her. At least with dreams, he usually woke up just before dying, but this felt _way_ too real.

Even if it was a dream, though, he couldn’t let her know that he was afraid. You never let your enemies nor your partners know you were afraid, no matter what was going on. So he answered her, keeping his voice as steady as he could.

“I’m okay, I guess,” he said, craning his neck up just to look her in the eye. “I mean, I know this is a dream and all, even if it feels pretty real.”

Giant Bethany frowned. “You think this is a dream?” she asked. Was that concern in her voice?

“Yeah, how else would you be this big?” The moment he said that, the events from earlier came rushing into his head: the shrink ray that had hit the Twilight star that Bethany had thrown, then Christian’s staff, then him…

“The Reducer…” he said out loud, the fact that he really _was_ a few inches tall now hitting him. 

Bethany nodded.

This was now a whole lot more terrifying compared to when he thought this was only a dream. In real life, he wouldn’t just wake up moments before his death. He could actually _die_.

“We were able to capture him after he hit you. Dad went out earlier to interrogate him on how to turn you back to normal, so hopefully we’ll have you back to normal size once he gets back.”

This wasn’t permanent. That was good. Soon, he’d be back to normal and could go back to beating up villains and showing how much better he was to Bethany. Not to mention he really would rather not stay in his Kid Twilight suit forever.

“Kids! Dinner is ready! And bring Orion with you, Beth!”

“All right, Mom!” Bethany yelled back.

Orion winced, immediately covering his ears. This didn’t go unnoticed by Bethany, who grimaced.

“Sorry,” she whispered, before holding out her hand palm up on the pillow right next to him.

Orion stared at it for a moment, not realizing right away what she meant. When he did, he stood up, which was actually kind of difficult on the pillow, and stepped onto her hand. 

He immediately lost his balance the moment she started walking out of her room, falling backwards on her hand, so he chose to remain seated on her palm, putting a hand on her thumb to steady himself. Even if Bethany was going at what was a pretty normal pace for her, at his new size, it suddenly felt a lot faster, and he could feel the up-and-down movement as she walked. The walls of the house were speeding by a lot faster than he’d like them to. Was he getting motion sick?

They finally reached the dining table, and Bethany’s mother had just finished setting the table, four plates set out. Three of them were filled with spaghetti. A fourth had much less, just a small amount of the pasta sitting in the center of it. Even if it was small, it still looked like too much for Orion to finish. Wait, did he have to eat it with his hands?

As gently as she could, Bethany slowly tilted her hand onto the table, allowing Orion to slide off next to his plate.

“This looks awesome! Thanks, Mom!”

“Thanks, Mrs. Sanderson.”

“Orion, just call me ‘Catherine’,” Bethany’s mother told him as she sat at her plate. “No need to be so formal with me, you’re basically part of the family.”

He winced at that statement. 

No, he was _not_ part of their family. Not because he didn’t like them— Christian, Bethany, and Bethany’s mother were all amazing people, don’t get him wrong— it was just better that way if they didn’t get close with him.

It was better for all of them. _Especially_ for him.

He climbed onto his plate to get to his food, Bethany telling her mother all about the battle they had with the Reducer. He was pretty sure that she told a lot of the battle inaccurately, because he did _not_ recall when she roundhouse kicked the villain in the head when he first appeared.

Just when Bethany started explaining what happened after Orion got hit, Christian stepped into the dining room, and he looked _tired_.

“He doesn’t call himself ‘the Reducer’ for nothing,” he grumbled. From his voice, it sounded like things didn’t go so well. _That_ terrified Orion.

“You were out for ages, honey,” Bethany’s mom told him. “Is everything all right?”

Christian just sighed, sitting down at the remaining plate of spaghetti. “Turns out that his technology only shrinks things, he doesn’t know how to grow them back to normal,” he explained. “I tried to get help from the best scientists in Jupiter City to see if they could mimic the Reducer’s technology and reverse it, but it turns out that this kind of technology is _way_ too advanced for them to figure out.”

“You mean people in Jupiter City never shrank stuff before?” Bethany asked, some spaghetti still in her mouth.

Christian nodded.

Orion gulped. This didn’t sound good. “And that means…?” he began, not sure if he wanted to find out.

Christian looked down at him, his eyes already apologizing. “Sorry, kid,” he told him with a sad smile. “You’re stuck like this for good.”

Orion froze. No, there was no way that was true. He _refused_ to believe that that was true. There had to be some way for him to change back!

“Hey, look on the bright side,” Christian said. “At least I was able to use the shrink ray to shrink down some of your clothes so that you don’t always have to wear that outfit.” He reached into his pocket and brought out several of Orion’s shirts, pants, shoes, and undergarments that were kept in the Jupiter City Observatory, all of which now fit him at his current size.

“Christian, you can’t actually expect him to live like this for the rest of his life!” Bethany’s mother protested, motioning to Orion sitting on his plate.

He scooted away from his food, finding that he wasn’t hungry anymore.

“What do you expect me to do, Catherine?” Christian said. “We tried everything, and there’s nothing we can do!”

“Bethany, what about when in the first _Story Thieves_ book you used a shrink ray on those monsters and accidentally shrunk Kiel? He became big again, right? You can do whatever you did for Orion!”

“Yeah… Kiel used his magic to grow himself back… and he freed his spellbook, so there’s no way he could do it again, and I don’t think that’s a spell he has memorized.”

Was he really going to be stuck being so small forever?

“But I could turn into a growth ray and grow him back!”

“No, Bethany.”

“But—”

“Look, your powers are impressive, and you’re getting a lot better! But something as complex as a growth ray, I don’t think you’ll be able to replicate one perfectly, and something could go wrong if we tried.”

Wait, a growth ray?

“...fine.”

Not that he trusted Bethany to successfully become one. Not even a little bit. But there was one person he trusted when it came to this weird science stuff, even if she didn’t really like him.

“What about Charm?” he brought up, looking at the giant family above him. He felt incredibly small as they looked down at him. “She could probably build something to make me big again.”

Christian brought a hand to his chin, considering that. “That’s not a bad idea,” he started, “but we’d have to see her after tomorrow, I have a meeting with the Legion tomorrow, and I’m not ready to see Athena’s face if I miss another one.”

“I can take him!” Bethany offered, a little too excitedly for Orion’s taste.

Christian nodded. “All right then, I can quickly drop by the lab to pick up the shrink ray for you to show Charm before you go. But I don’t want you using it, you hear me?”

Bethany groaned. “Okay, Dad.” 

Christian stood up, really towering over Orion now. “I’ll be heading to bed now,” he announced. “Captain Sunshine is never gonna let me live it down if I end up dealing with Athena’s wrath.”

“Could you drop me off back at the observatory before you go?” Orion asked, standing up as well, though he was nowhere near as tall as he’d usually be next to Christian. His home wasn’t here, and he’d really rather be back in his room underneath the observatory.

Christian just sighed. “Sorry, kid, but I’m not letting you stay on your own while you’re like this.”

“What?!”

“I know you can protect yourself, but like this, you’re _way_ too vulnerable.”

Great. He wasn’t even trusted to be on his own just because he was tiny now. Stupid Reducer, he really _was_ evil!

“Beth, do you think you could let Orion sleep in your room?”

Bethany shrugged. “Sure, I don’t mind. I can find the handkerchief from my old cowgirl costume and he could sleep on that.”

“All right, sounds good! Come on, kid, I’ll take you to the bathroom so you can wash up in the sink and get ready for bed.”

To say Orion hated this was definitely an understatement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus begins Orion’s life being 4 inches tall. Fun things to come in the future chapters!


	3. Charm Can Fix This! Right?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bethany takes Orion to see Charm in Quanterium. She’s built a jetpack, a machine to alter DNA, and a machine to give someone time powers, so she’s bound to get him back to normal soon!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y’all ready for a physics lesson in this chapter?

One thing that Orion learned that night— not including the facts that he’d been shrunk down to a few inches tall by the new villain and apparently can’t get back to normal soon— was that Bethany snored. Loudly.

He was an incredibly light sleeper, so sleeping on Bethany’s nightstand right next to her definitely did _not_ help. He took the edge of the folded handkerchief, trying to cover his ears, but it was no use. The thunderous roars of her snoring kept him tossing and turning, making sleep impossible.

Meaning he wasn’t happy by the time she woke up the next morning.

“Sleep well?” she asked him as she sat up, her red hair sticking out all over the place.

“Slept horribly,” he grumbled, slowly sitting up as well. “You’re snoring kept me awake all night.”

Bethany glared down at him, and for once in his life, Orion regretted saying something like that to her. “I don’t snore!” she told him, her voice raising a little.

“Yes, you do. It’s like a freight train going through the room.”

He really needed to shut up.

“Shut up!” She gave him a small poke with her finger, but the force was enough to knock him back down.

There was a knock on the door. “Beth?”

Doc Twilight stepped in, the shrink ray in hand. “I’ll leave this here,” he said, placing it on the dresser a little too close to Orion. “Remember: don’t use it under any circumstances, it’s only for Charm to study. Got it?”

Bethany rolled her eyes. “I know, Dad.”

“Okay, I’m headed out now.” He turned to Orion with a smile. “Hope to see you back to normal when I get back, kid.”

Orion nodded, but didn’t respond.

After both Bethany and Orion were dressed, they went on their way to the portal to Quanterium, the shrink ray in Bethany’s hand. Well, Bethany was taking them, Orion just sat in her free hand against her chest, hoping that he wouldn’t fall off. He felt really pathetic, needing Bethany to take him everywhere, and not just because he was currently sleep deprived, though at least Bethany’s mother allowed him a few drops of coffee.

They made it to Quanterium, which was a very drastic change of scene compared to the nonfictional world. Even compared to Jupiter City, walking into Quanterium felt like stepping into the future, though with Charm’s initiative to unite this planet and Magisteria, it was definitely becoming a lot more colorful, even if the buildings looked practically the same.

It was maybe half an hour of Bethany walking around and making different turns when Orion spoke up. “Are we lost?”

Bethany laughed. “What? No, no we’re not— I know where Charm’s office is!”

“We’re lost.”

“We are _not_ lost, because I know where it—” She walked into a dead end with no Quanterians, then sighed, hanging her head. “Okay, yeah, I’m lost.”

Orion couldn’t help but smirk. “Told ya so.”

“Oh hey, Beth! Didn’t realize you were visiting, too!”

She turned around, a little too quickly; Orion had to grab her shirt so he wouldn’t fly off. 

Kiel Gnomenfoot was standing behind her, giving her that stupid wink he gave everyone. 

“Hey, Kie— wait, aren’t you a criminal here?”

Kiel shrugged. “Eh, President Mentum pardoned me, so I can basically come whenever I want to visit her.”

“You know where Charm’s office is?”

“Of course! You don’t?”

“She got us lost trying to get there,” Orion spoke up, Kiel doing a double take as he did.

“Whoa.” The magician knelt down a little, Bethany raising her hand so that they were at eye level. Really, it felt pretty demeaning. “You seem a _little_ different today, Orion,” Kiel said with a smile and a wink.

Orion scowled. “Not. Funny.”

“Guess that joke fell _short_ with you, huh?”

Orion did his best to stand, though on someone’s hand, it was strangely difficult; cartoons really made it look a lot easier. “One more joke about my size and I _will_ strangle you!”

Kiel stood back up to his full height, reminding Orion just how small he was. “Can you even reach my neck right now?”

“Okay, as funny as this is, we need to get serious.” Bethany brought Orion back down next to her chest, her hand curling towards him as he realized that he’d been about to jump to try to tackle Kiel. “He was shrunk yesterday by a new villain in Jupiter City, and we need Charm to get him back to normal.”

“But I kind of like him like this!” Kiel reached out a finger to pet his hair, at which Orion growled at. He absolutely _loathed_ being this small.

“Seriously, Kiel, we can’t leave him like this.”

“All right, all right.” He stopped petting Orion (thankfully) and motioned for Bethany to follow him. “I can take you to Charm. Hopefully she’s not too busy right now.”

He led them down a few streets, none of the Quanterians seeming to notice the three of them. They finally entered one of the buildings, Kiel taking them up something that resembled an elevator, then made their way down a hallway until they finally entered a room. Inside, different parts and clutter filled the room, Charm way on the other side focused on something.

“Yo, Charm!” Kiel called out to her, Bethany stepping in behind him.

“Go away, Kiel,” she said, not even looking up.

“Come on, don’t you have time for your favowite pewson?”

She groaned, turning around. “Kiel, can’t you see that I’m—” She froze, seeing Bethany. Orion had a feeling that she hadn’t noticed him yet. “Bethany,” she said, “I wasn’t expecting you to show up… did you come with Kiel to annoy me?”

“What? No, I came because we’ve got a… well, I came with Orion here—” she lifted her hand to show him to her, Orion using his hands to keep himself sitting up, “—because we need your help to make him big again.”

Charm walked over, tilting her head as her eyes studied him. With the illusion on her body, Orion couldn’t really remember which was her robotic eye. “Interesting,” she muttered, prodding him a bit with her finger. He tried to swat it away, but it was no use.

Without warning, she took him in her hand, her fingers wrapped around his body a little tighter than he liked, his arms pinned to his side.

“Hey, be careful with him!” Bethany yelled as Charm dropped him rather unceremoniously onto what looked like some sort of scale.

“I’m not gonna hurt him,” Charm told her, meddling with some buttons and dials on whatever he was tossed onto. “I just need to take some measurements before I can get him back to normal.”

Still a little shaken from how she handled him, Orion got to his feet, hoping she wouldn’t grab him again.

“9 jollerns,” she said to herself. A panel opened up on one of her arms, and she typed into it. Considering the illusion she wore, it looked pretty creepy.

“Uh, English?” Orion said, not understanding what the heck that meant.

Charm rolled her eyes. “In your world, that’s a little under one pound. Didn’t check the conversion for the accurate weight, though.”

She then grabbed what was some kind of measuring tape from beneath the table, stretching it out next to him. Orion was more than uncomfortable with the way she intently stared at him.

“7 centihalds.”

“...what?”

“About ten centimeters, or four inches. I don’t know which one you guys use. Earth should really just pick a system and stick with it, converting to both from the Quanterium system is already annoying enough.”

She typed into her arm again before asking him a question. “How much did you weigh before?”

“144 pounds, last I checked.”

She typed into her arm. “Okay, so about 1.3 kilojollerns… and how about your height?”

“Five feet, and six _and a half_ inches.” He made sure to emphasize the half, since that half an inch taller than Bethany was _very_ important to him.

“So about 1.2 halds…”

She finished typing, and the panel on her arm closed. “All right!” She clapped her hands together, moving somewhere else and using her finger to start writing and drawing a blueprint in the air. “This shouldn’t take too long, just give me maybe a few years or so.”

“ _Years?!_ ” both Bethany and Orion exclaimed.

“When you made Gwen that jetpack, altered my DNA, and gave Owen those time powers, that only took _minutes_!” Bethany pointed out.

“That’s because that stuff is easy,” Charm told her, still writing. “Size altering, that stuff is pretty difficult.”

“That’s _difficult_?!”

“Hey, if Charm says it’s hard, then it’s hard,” Kiel told them, shrugging. “I don’t understand any of this science stuff, but she does, so you have to trust her.”

Bethany shook her head. “No,” she said, then pointed to Charm. “You literally messed with my DNA to make me turn into inanimate objects after building something for like, a minute, and you’re telling me you can’t make Orion big again? I refuse to believe that _that_ would be hard for you.”

Charm stopped writing to glare at her, her work still up in the air. “Do you _really_ want me to explain this to you?” she said, then grabbed a box from the ground.

“When you shrink something, you’re essentially just pulling the atoms closer to each other, meaning no mass should be lost. Take this cardboard box from Earth.” 

She held it up for all of them to see.

“Right now, it’s at its normal size. But if I do _this_.”

She then began crushing it in her hands, until it was a small, tight ball. 

“It gets smaller and takes up less volume. However, nothing was actually lost from the box, so it’ll weigh the same amount as before I crushed it. Meaning Orion should’ve stayed at 1.3 kilojollerns when he shrank, or 144 pounds, or whatever, assuming he didn’t die in the process.”

“Wait, what?!”

Charm ignored him and kept talking. “Whoever shrunk him managed to do it so that his weight diminished as well, though it’s not very proportional. Whether he lost atoms or something else happened to alter his weight, I’m not sure. This kind of technology doesn’t even exist here on Quanterium, only in theory, so it'll take me awhile to be able to replicate whatever that guy did so that I’ll know how to reverse it.”

Charm immediately went back to the blueprint, silence filling the room as the other three processed what she had told them.

“Okay, yeah, I understood pretty much nothing she just said,” Kiel stated, breaking the silence.

Orion understood enough, though. He was basically stuck like this until Charm could figure out not just how to change his size, but his weight as well. And she had to make her _own_ shrink ray that worked exactly like the Reducer’s for her to figure it out.

Wait, she didn’t _have_ to recreate it. “Bethany, the shrink ray!” Orion called out to her, the redhead perking up.

“Oh yeah! I forgot I had it!” She made her way around the clutter that was scattered on the floor and tapped Charm on the shoulder, handing the device to her. “Maybe you could take a look at this to get started? It might make things quicker.”

Charm stopped writing, taking the shrink ray in her hands and studying it, turning it over, this way and that. She then aimed it at a workbench nearby and pulled the trigger. The familiar blue ray shot out and wrapped around the workbench, reducing it and everything on it to a size that Orion could currently use it at.

“Amazing!” This was among the few times that Orion had seen Charm smile. She picked up the tiny workbench, turning it in her fingers, the tinier objects on it falling to the floor. “This is probably some of the most advanced technology that I’ve seen! And living on Quanterium, that’s saying something.”

She set the workbench down, already opening up the side of the shrink ray to look at whatever was inside. “Having this will _definitely_ move things along faster, so I’ll be able to get Orion back to normal a lot sooner.”

“How much sooner?”

She paused to think.

“Give me about a month.”

A month? Still way too long to stay four inches tall in his opinion, but it was better than a few years at least.

“Kiel, you’re gonna be helping me with this.”

“Nice!” He quickly walked over to Charm, looking over her shoulder. “What do you need me to do?”

Charm just smiled. “You’ll see.”

“Ready to head back and tell Dad the news?” Bethany asked, making her way to where Orion stood, her hand out for him to climb onto.

“Well, there’s nothing else for us to do here, so I guess,” he answered as he got on.

“Oh! Need me to lead you back to the portal?” Kiel asked the two, looking up from watching Charm.

Bethany nodded. “Please.”

“All right,” Charm told him, not bothering to look at any of them as she continued to mess with the shrink ray, “you can lead them out, but I want you back here as soon as possible.”

“Got it! Follow me, Beth!”

Making their way back to the portal was definitely a lot faster than finding their way to Charm now that they had Kiel guiding them. Kiel turned to them before they parted, winking at Bethany, then down at Orion.

“Hope to see you again at your normal size,” he said to him.

“Thanks…” Orion replied. Kiel was planning some sort of short joke, he knew it.

“See you guys in a _tiny_ bit!”

“ _KIEL!!!_ ”

Bethany jumped through the portal before he had a chance to say anything else.


	4. Cleaning With Catherine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Being tiny sucks. And so does spending time with someone from the nonfictional world. Or at least, that’s what Orion originally thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Catherine and Orion bonding we all never knew we needed.

Christian wasn’t too happy to learn that Orion would stay about four inches tall for another month, but he was glad that Charm  _ could  _ at least get him back to normal.

The first couple days weren’t anything too special, minus the fact that Orion requested to sleep somewhere else during the nights. Despite Bethany’s protests that she did  _ not  _ snore, Christian and Bethany’s mother at least sided with Orion and agreed that she did. So they let him sleep on their nightstand in their room.

Not that much of an improvement, but better than dealing with Bethany’s snoring at least, since neither Christian nor Bethany’s mother snored.

Orion spent the first days doing nothing, almost literally in fact. The Sanderson family did almost everything for him. Well, he  _ was  _ four inches tall now, sure, but it still felt kind of condescending, the way they treated him like he couldn’t do anything. Even simple tasks like going from the kitchen to the bathroom on his own were treated as impossible for him. He wasn’t even allowed outside the house!

It was especially worse when Doc Twilight and Twilight Girl went out to patrol Jupiter City one night, and wouldn’t let him come.

“But I was always go patrolling with you guys!” he complained. “I’ve been doing it way before she was born, too!”

“Dude, there’s no way you’re gonna be able to even keep up with us,” Twilight Girl said, putting on her mask. “Plus, you could easily die now.”

“Fighting crime has always been dangerous,” Orion countered, really wishing he could just jump off the table. “Come on! Doc, let me go with you guys!”

“No can do, kid,” Doc Twilight told him, using a finger to lightly ruffle his hair. Orion pushed it away, trying to fix his hair. “You can join us again once you’re back to normal, but for now, you stay here with Catherine.”

Orion could do nothing as he watched them walk out the door without him. Except groan loudly. This wasn’t  _ fair _ !

“Oh, cheer up, Grumpypants,” Bethany’s mother said, coming into the room with her hair tied back. “Do you really think spending time with me isn’t as exciting as fighting crime?”

Orion just shrugged. Bethany’s mother wasn’t a horrible person to spend time with, but considering she was from the nonfictional world, he was pretty sure that she wasn’t going to be very interesting.

She seemed to ignore his shrug. Or maybe she didn’t see it. “Come on, you’re gonna help me clean the house.” She held her hand out, and he climbed on, seeing as he didn’t really have a choice.

She set him down on a shelf, then handed him a feather she had just plucked from the feather duster. “You can dust here while I get the rest of the living room,” she said, then turned around to get started.

Better than just sitting in the kitchen and doing nothing, probably. So he took the giant feather in his hand and got to work. It wasn’t too dusty at least, but it seemed to affect him a lot more for some reason. He was definitely sneezing a lot more than he would’ve been had he been doing this while he was big.

Music suddenly started playing, startling him a bit.

“Sorry about that,” Bethany’s mother apologized, walking away from a radio. “I like listening to something while I work. You don’t mind, right?”

Orion shook his head, before going back to dusting.

Honestly, he never would’ve guessed that Bethany’s mother was a rock fan. She didn’t seem like the type, but here she was, listening to rock music as they dusted the room. Heck, she was even singing along! Not that she was a great singer, but Orion was still pretty surprised.

He didn’t know much about the music in the nonfictional world, but he ended up learning about different rock bands from the 70s that Catherine loved. She was especially fond of Journey, which happened to be her favorite. The CD she was playing happened to be one of her favorite albums from them.

He had to admit that he was starting to like them, too. Heck, “Don’t Stop Believin’” was pretty catchy!

She even told him about some of the concerts that she went to when she was younger, though Orion couldn’t really imagine her doing so. He couldn’t even imagine her being young.

As she told him about a concert she went to for Queen as they cleaned the study room, Orion’s focus suddenly turned to the picture frame standing in front of him. In the photo was a man and a woman sitting together, an arm around each other and a baby sitting on the man’s lap. Orion recognized the couple as Christian and Bethany’s mother, just younger than they were now. Which meant the baby with a little bit of red hair on their head was Bethany.

Orion stared at it, his thoughts drowning out everything else around him. There was a similar picture that he kept in his room back in Jupiter City, except that it was of his parents and him when he was younger and when they were still alive. They were posed almost exactly like the Sandersons were in the photo, except that Orion was sitting on his mother’s lap and was not looking at the camera. Plus, his parents were holding each other’s hands instead of hugging each other.

He was incredibly young when he had lost them. He could barely remember what they were like now, but he had faint memories of his mother’s smile and his father’s hugs.

“We took this on Bethany’s first birthday,” Bethany’s mother told him, bringing him out of his thoughts. She picked up the photo, smiling fondly at it. “She was very feisty as a baby. Did you know that once she cried with her mouth closed just because she refused to drink milk from her bottle?”

Orion couldn’t help but snicker at that.

“She also went through a phase where she thought that everything she grabbed was hers. She had just learned the word ‘mine’ during this time. There was one time where she wouldn’t give Christian his mask and insisted it was hers, and she started screaming when he took it back from her!”

Okay,  _ that  _ was pretty funny! He had to keep that story in mind as some way to get her to listen to him during their battles in Jupiter City.

She placed the photo frame back down, Orion stepping back a bit as she sighed a little. “Christian has told me what happened with  _ your  _ family when you were younger,” she said.

Orion bit his lip, remembering the alien attack that had taken his parents that day. For something so long ago, the memory was still very clear in his mind. Why was she bringing that up?

“You don’t have to talk about it, but I know you haven’t really had a family since they died, but you have us, okay?” She used the tip of her finger to lightly stroke his cheek, and he found that he didn’t want to swat it away. “Me, Christian, Bethany, we aren’t the same as your real family, but just know that we’re here for you, all right?”

She did her best to hug him, using her entire hand to gently wrap his body. He did his best to return it, wrapping his arms around her thumb.

“All right, Mrs. Sanderson.”

“How many times do I have to tell you, you can just call me ‘Catherine’.”

He smiled. “All right,  _ Catherine _ .”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heads up! Bethany and Orion bonding and Christian and Orion bonding in future chapters to come!


	5. Reach For the Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s been quite a long time since Orion really got to hang out with Christian outside of fighting crime.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y’all ready for some good Christian and Orion bonding????

Staying in the house alone with Catherine was definitely something that Orion looked forward to now. It didn’t happen every night, of course, but he enjoyed the time spent with her whenever it happened.

Sometimes he’d help her a bit with chores, even if it wasn’t much, but it always felt better to do something than nothing at all. As usual, they listened to different rock bands as they did,  _ especially _ Journey. It even got to the point that “Don’t Stop Believin’” was constantly stuck in his head. Not that he minded much, it was only a little annoying.

Sometimes, when there wasn’t any chores left, they’d sit on the couch watching movies. Well, Catherine would sit on the couch, Orion sat in her hand. Catherine was very into the mystery and horror genres, especially older ones like  _ The Shining _ or anything with Hercule Poirot. 

Orion preferred action, especially the DC Comics movies. Catherine constantly joked how similar he was to Batman’s sidekick, Robin. Personally, he didn’t see the resemblance.

Of course, it turned out that Catherine wasn’t always available whenever both Christian and Bethany were both out. There was one evening where she had to stay at work late, for one reason or another. Bethany was also out, though not patrolling with her father; she was sleeping at Owen’s that night. Meaning no one would be in the house to watch over Orion.

“Why don’t you come with me, kid?” Doc Twilight suggested that night.

Orion raised a brow. “I thought I wasn’t allowed outside the house,” he pointed out.

“Hey, I can’t leave you alone here. Plus, I thought you’d want to see Jupiter City again, after being away for so long.”

True, it  _ had  _ been over a week and a half since the whole shrinking incident, meaning it had been over a week and a half spent stuck in the nonfictional world. Going back to Jupiter City would be nice.

So he nodded. “Okay.”

Doc smiled. “Great! I’ll just let Catherine know you’re gonna be with me before we go, and you just put this on.” He held the tiny Kid Twilight outfit between his fingers, handing it to Orion. “Can’t let people know that Christian and Orion run the observatory,” he said with a wink.

Once he was Kid Twilight, and Doc was done telling his wife where they would be, they set out to the portal to Jupiter City, Kid Twilight sitting in Doc’s hand. As they reentered the city, Kid Twilight inhaled the city’s air deeply, the smell welcoming to him. It felt great to be back!

They arrived at the observatory, Doc placing him down on the table before checking something through the giant telescope.

“Aren’t we going to patrol?” Kid Twilight asked him, watching as he entered certain coordinates. Doc just grinned a little sheepishly at him.

“Flying Duck has the patrol tonight, actually,” he said. “We don’t have to do anything tonight.”

Kid Twilight groaned. When he actually thought he’d be able to go patrolling. Was this just some sort of pity from Doc?

“But,” Doc Twilight continued, walking back to the table, “that doesn’t mean we’re not doing anything tonight.” He sat down in a chair in front of Kid Twilight, holding his gloved hand straight up in front of the tiny sidekick. It was much bigger than he was, almost twice as tall, in fact. 

“Strike me with all you’ve got, kid,” Doc told him with a playful smirk. “Can’t let you forget how to fight while you’re small.”

Was he being serious? Or was this some kind of joke? This had to be some kind of mockery for how weak he was now. Hesitantly, Kid Twilight punched somewhere above the top of the center of Doc’s palm.

“That all you got? Come on, I know you’re only a few inches tall right now, but you can do better than that!”

So he  _ was  _ serious. Letting out a battle cry, Kid Twilight put all his strength into his arm, punching Doc Twilight’s palm with as much force as he could muster.

The giant hero grinned. “That’s what I’m talking about!”

Kid Twilight continued, throwing more punches and kicks at Doc’s hand for the next half hour or so. Doc pulled his hand away during one of his punches, though, and Kid Twilight stumbled forward from the momentum, almost falling off of the table.

“Whoa, don’t go flying off there, kid!” Doc caught him in his other hand, standing up as he held his tiny sidekick. “And don’t go wearing yourself out. But you did good!”

He smiled down at him, and Kid Twilight found himself smiling back up at the hero.

Doc Twilight made his way to the telescope, looking through it for a moment before turning back to his sidekick in his hand. “Hey, it’s almost dark out, wanna sit up at the top like old times?”

“Uh, sure?”

Kid Twilight was barely four years old when his parents had died and when Doc Twilight had taken him in. One way Doc learned to calm the young child down was to take him to the Jupiter City Observatory that the boy’s parents had owned and sit up top, stargazing. 

There was just something about the stars he loved; maybe it was how they always shone, no matter what. How much brighter they became the darker it got.

As a young boy, he had already learned the names and stories of the constellations, along with the names of several stars. He could tell you which ones were actually planets, and he could tell you what time of the year each constellation could be seen.

When he started training as Kid Twilight, they started doing it a lot less as the years went on. He’d come up on his own every once in a while, especially when Doc had gone missing, but it was never the same.

He was genuinely surprised that Doc even remembered that they did this.

Kid Twilight in one hand, Doc Twilight climbed up the ladder on the side of the observatory, the sun now almost completely below the horizon. The moon was almost full, already high above the city, some of the stars already peeking through the darkness.

At the top, Doc sat down, resting the hand holding Kid Twilight on his knee. Once the darkness had set, the stars twinkled in the night sky, the sidekick immediately recognizing the constellations above. He got to his knees, scooting forward and holding onto Doc’s curled fingers as he searched for the three stars signifying Orion’s belt, a part of the constellation that he had been named after.

“Why don’t you tell me about the stars again, kid?” the hero asked him with a smile.

So he did.

He pointed out Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the mother and son who had been transformed into bears by the gods. He pointed out the hero Hercules, the demigod who completed twelve seemingly impossible tasks. He found Cygnus the swan, who was probably just the god of lightning, Zeus, in disguise. He even told the story of the hunter Orion, pointing to the three stars that made up his belt, and how he fell to Scorpius the scorpion, who could be seen chasing him throughout the night sky.

He didn’t know how long he was talking, but he didn’t want to stop. He could feel himself smiling as he told the stories of the different constellations that they could spot in the summer night sky, stories that he still had memorized by heart.

He had just finished talking about Sagittarius the centaur when Doc suddenly stood up, Kid Twilight holding on as he felt himself going up in his hand. “It’s getting late,” Doc said, climbing back down in the darkness. “Better head back before we make Catherine worry.”

Kid Twilight nodded a little sadly— it had been forever since he got to explain the constellations in the sky to someone else. But he still got to do it tonight, which was something.

He didn’t know what time it was, nor did he know how long they had been up there. But Doc held him closer to his chest, and the tiny sidekick was now leaning against him as he lay in his hand, already asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up next: some good ol’ Bethany and Orion bonding. :)


	6. Don’t Tell Mom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bethany sure has an interesting idea of “fun”...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bethany and Orion bonding for y’all:))))

Ever since Christian took him back to Jupiter City that night, he and Catherine seemed to agree that it wasn’t good for him to just stay imprisoned in their home, so they decided that he’d be allowed to go out with Bethany whenever she hung out with her friends. It felt good to finally get out of the house at least, though the others didn’t really make it much better.

Kara would not stop laughing and making jokes like Kiel had done. She’d also tease him now that he wasn’t big enough to stop her from doing anything illegal. All he could really do was yell at her. Which didn’t really do anything to get her to stop.

Gwen wasn’t so bad, but he noticed that she seemed to treat him like he was fragile. At least she was careful, but he didn’t like feeling as if he couldn’t handle himself.

Owen… well, Owen asked him a lot of questions, half of them making no sense to Orion. There was also a lot of mentions of something called “Borrowers,” but he didn’t get it. He was pretty sure it was fanfiction related or whatever. He didn’t know. Honestly, he didn’t understand most of whatever came out of Owen’s mouth.

While Orion usually went outside the house when Bethany went to see the others, there were some occasions when they went outside just because. Bethany really enjoyed climbing the trees at the park, Orion on her shoulder as he held onto her hair, which was actually a lot harder than it had seemed.

One day, though, instead of taking the two of them to the park, she told him she had the best idea that they could do.

Already, he didn’t like the sound of that.

Sure, when fighting criminals, she could come up with good ideas on the spot, but he didn’t really trust her much for “fun” outside of fighting crime.

“Come on, just trust me on this,” she told him.

“I told you: no,” he reaffirmed, crossing his arms. “Your last ‘best idea’ ended up with me and Owen switching bodies for almost twelve hours.” That wasn’t a fun day. And considering he was now four inches tall, there was no way this could end well.

“Too late! We’re doing it!” She grabbed him around the torso, dropping him gently in her other hand and walking out the front door.

Orion groaned. Being small, he basically had no choice. Which sucked.

Once outside, Bethany sat down on the driveway, letting Orion off of her hand as well. She smiled down at him, and Orion wasn’t sure if he trusted her or not. It wasn’t too late to run, right?

With a pop, Bethany disappeared. In place of where she sat looked like a yellow toy SUV without the roof, though the details were pretty impressive, especially for a toy car. The door to the driver’s seat then popped open, a voice through the radio speaking up. “Hop in!”

Orion did.

This was definitely  _ not _ a toy car. Bethany had transformed into an actual car, just at a size where Orion could actually use it. There were the seatbelts, an actual dashboard, and real pedals for driving!

“Did you know you could do this?” Orion asked, gently tracing his fingers along the edge of the steering wheel. He pushed a button, the windshield wipers turning on.

“Hey, stop! That tickles!” The windshield wipers immediately turned off. “And no, not at all. I didn’t even think this would work!”

Orion continued to check out the features in the tiny car, turning on and off different things that he still couldn’t believe actually worked. He had to admit, this was impressive! Who knew she could control the size of whatever object she became?

The engine suddenly roared to life, which Orion knew was  _ not  _ from his doing.

“Wanna see how well we can drive?” Bethany asked through the radio speakers, shifting herself from park to drive.

“No!” This was getting a  _ little  _ too far. As cool as this was, he was not prepared to crash into something like this. And he was pretty sure they’d end up crashing.

Bethany ignored him, already driving forward. “Buckle in!”

She was already picking up speed, so jumping out would probably be too dangerous. His fingers fumbling over each other, he grabbed the seatbelt and quickly clicked it into the buckle. The moment he did, Bethany shot into the street.

The wind whipping wildly in his face, Orion was screaming at the top of his lungs as Bethany raced down the street, turning to stay within the neighborhood. A couple cars were driving along the road, too, as they pulled from their driveways to go somewhere. 

“Watch out!” he cried as Bethany just missed crashing into the tires of a moving car.

There were  _ way  _ too many close calls for Orion’s taste. And it felt like they were getting faster. Did Bethany  _ want  _ them to get killed?!

“All right, I’m taking over!” he announced after the fifth lap around the neighborhood and probably the seventh close call they had with a car.

“Be my guest,” Bethany replied through the speakers as he grabbed the steering wheel.

He pulled a tight turn around the corner, trying to stomp on the brakes. They wouldn’t budge.

“BETHANY!!!” he screamed, turning another corner and narrowly missing being run over by another car.

She just laughed through the speakers.

“Bethany! Brakes!  _ Brakes! _ ”

She just continued laughing, not letting the brake pedal move.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, a neighbor stepped outside with their dog, probably going for a walk. As they turned to lock their front door, the dog caught sight of them rushing past. She bolted after the tiny car and boy, barking as her owner called out after her.

“Okay, never mind what I said about brakes!” Orion told the car, making another turn as the dog started gaining on them. “ _ Speed up! _ ”

“Already on it!”

He could feel them accelerating, the two of them creating more distance between them and the dog, but she wasn’t ready to give up. With a couple more excited barks, she continued to chase after them, her leash flapping in the wind behind her.

They kept driving and turning, but nothing they did could shake the giant dog from their trail. Cars came in front of them, and the dog still continued to chase them, no obstacle hindering her from her prey.

Thinking quickly, Orion turned onto the grass, though it did slow them down a bit. 

“Orion, what are you doing?!”

“Shut up, I have an idea!”

They were able to speed back up once they reached the pavement again, the dog managing to nip at them way too close for comfort. There was no one on the sidewalks, and most of the driveways were empty, much to his dismay as the dog continued after them.

“You’d better do that idea fast!”

“Give me a second!”

There was finally a driveway with a car parked on it. Grinning, Orion steered Bethany underneath the car, shooting across to the other side.

He heard the dog barking at them from the other side of the car, whining as she got herself stuck underneath.

He wasn’t sure if it was from the exhilaration or the relief, but Orion was laughing like crazy. As they approached the Sanderson household once again, Bethany skidded to a halt as she turned into the grass, almost tipping over.

Orion leaned back in his seat, his heart beating from excitement. Boy, was he glad that was over.

“Let’s do that again!” Bethany laughed through her radio speakers.

“Let’s  _ not _ .” Yeah, that was definitely enough excitement for one day. And maybe the rest of the week. Or even month.

“Okay, fine. Party pooper.”

With a pop, Bethany was back to herself, Orion suddenly a lot farther from the ground as he found himself on top of her head, sliding down a bit already. A lock of her hair was draped around him, like his seatbelt from earlier.

“Come on.” Bethany brought a hand up above her head for Orion to climb onto. “All that driving has me  _ starving _ !”

Bethany brought both of them inside, both of them still grinning madly with adrenaline. Christian was watching TV on the couch, and Catherine was nowhere in sight, hopefully at work.

“Remember: we are  _ not  _ telling Mom we just did that.”

Orion nodded. He was pretty sure that if they hadn’t died from the cars or the dog, Catherine would be the cause of their death.

Christian looked up from watching, raising a brow. “You’re not telling your mother what?”

Bethany stopped in her tracks.

Uh oh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He’s bonded with all three Sandersons. But we’ve got five more chapters left. Huh...


	7. Once Upon a Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Huh. Something seems off...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nice familial bond you’ve got with the Sandersons, Orion. It’d be a shame if something were to happen to that...

_Orion was just waiting on the table for breakfast. He didn’t actually remember who brought him there that morning, nor did he remember even being carried over, but that wasn’t really important._

_Catherine was taking longer than usual with the breakfast, though; actually, he hadn’t seen her at all that morning. Not to mention Bethany and Christian weren’t seated at the table, either._

_Huh._ That _was a little weird._

_The house was way too quiet. Where_ was _everyone?_

_Orion continued to wait patiently, though he did start getting nervous. Had some villain managed to find them here in the nonfictional world and kidnap them? Were they okay?_

_Catherine finally walked in from the kitchen, though she didn’t have any plates in her hands. She just probably wasn’t done with the food yet._

_Orion sighed with relief, thankful that she was okay. “What are you making, Catherine?” he asked her, trying to see if he could smell it from where he stood._

_Catherine’s eyes widened at him, and she shrieked in response. “A bug!” she cried out._

_Orion whipped around, but he was the only thing on the table. There weren’t any bugs nearby that he could see._

_“What are talking abou—” He stopped mid sentence as he looked back to her, spying the flyswatter she now held above her head. He really didn’t like the way she was looking at him._

_His eyes widened as he realized what “bug” she was referring to._

_“Catherine, wait, it’s me! Orion!”_

_She either didn’t hear him or ignored him as she started swinging the flyswatter towards him, glaring down at him. He tried to call up to her once more, but it was useless._

_So he ran._

_It was way too close, the flyswatter just barely missing him as it slammed down behind him. Why was Catherine doing this?! Didn’t she know it was him?_

_He suddenly found himself on the kitchen floor. He didn’t remember jumping off the table, but that was the least of his concerns at the moment; Christian was standing over him, and he didn’t look happy with Orion._

_“Don’t worry, honey,” he said, his voice now booming. “I got it.” He raised his foot, Orion now able to see the sole of his shoe. He could feel his heart beginning to pound in his chest._

_“Christian! Stop! It’s me, please!”_

_Just like Catherine, Christian either didn’t hear him or ignored him. His foot came crashing down, and Orion ran like he never ran before. His heart was pounding in his head as he pumped his legs, refusing to stop. He tried to focus on staying alive rather than on the image of becoming a red stain at the bottom of Christian’s shoe._

_He turned back to check how much closer Christian was, but he was nowhere to be seen; he was gone._

_He ran straight into some kind of wall before he could slow down or process what had happened. A shoe? Looking up, he couldn’t see their face, but he recognized the red hair of Bethany._

_He breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness he found her!_

_Before he could say anything, she picked him up, pinching his body between her thumb and two of her fingers. Her hair was covering most of her face as her head hung low, obscuring it, but he didn’t care about that._

_“Bethany, you have to help me!” he told her, still terrified from the encounter with Christian and Catherine. “Your mom and dad are trying to kill me!”_

_Bethany said nothing. He noticed that she didn’t seem to be breathing. Was her grip a little tighter than before?_

_“Bethany?”_

_She slowly lifted her head, and her hair moved away from her face, revealing an unsettling smile and no eyes. Her other fingers wrapped around him, constricting his body._

_“Bethany, what are you—”_

_Her grip only grew tighter, and her smile only grew wider. Orion felt like he could pop at any moment as he struggled to breath._

_“Bethany… please…” he choked out._

_She kept going._

_“Let… go…”_

_She stopped._

_She froze._

_And she did as he said._

_She opened her fist, Orion now falling straight to the ground. Accepting his fate, he braced for impact, ready to splat onto the ground, and—_

Orion awoke with a start, shooting up.

He was panting heavily, his heart still pounding against his chest. Ever since becoming tiny, his heart rate had greatly increased, but now it was like a drum roll against his ribs.

He hadn’t had a nightmare like that in so long. Sure, he’d have one now and then, especially the one where he relived his parents’ death from over ten years ago, but they were never as intense as that. 

He turned to the side, looking at where Christian and Catherine slept. He couldn’t really see them, but he could see the silhouette of the blanket rising and falling slowly as they slept. Not a sign that they had been about to kill him like their dream counterparts.

Christian and Catherine would never kill him. Heck, even as intense as Bethany could be, she would never try to kill him on purpose, either. At least, he was sure of that before, but now…

There was something on his cheeks. He slowly brought his hand to his face, feeling something wet. Was he crying?

No, he wasn’t. He didn’t cry. Crying was for kids, not for teenagers like him. Not for the sidekick of a superhero. Crying was _not_ for him.

He bit his lip, hugging his knees close to his chest. Why was he shaking so much?

He wasn’t crying. He wasn’t crying. He wasn’t crying. He wasn’t crying. He wasn’t crying. He wasn’t…

A small sob escaped his mouth.

He was crying.

And he couldn’t stop.

He could still remember it clearly: the disgust on Catherine’s and Christian’s faces, how close they had been to crushing him, Bethany’s smile and grip… It all felt too real. _Way_ too real.

He laid back down, curling up into the handkerchief and burying his face into it as his nose started running, muffling his sobs. His throat was too tight, and it was hard to swallow.

Could it really happen? Would they really just try to kill him now that he was basically nothing?

What if that was actually how they saw him now? Nothing more than just a worthless bug? What if all that junk about being there for him or treating him like one of them was some sort of pity act? Because they just felt sorry for him? Because he was just a pathetic nothing now? 

He curled up tighter, unable to fall back asleep or breathe through his nose. He squeezed his eyes tight, trying to make the tears stop. They didn’t.

This was why he stayed away from people. This was why he stopped getting close. This was why he chose to distance himself from everyone he met.

Because once you were close with someone, you would only get hurt, one way or another. They were either taken away from you, or they turned on you.

He had too much experience with that.

This was why he couldn’t think of the Sandersons like his family.


	8. On My Own

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orion is determined to prove that he can handle things on his own.

They probably noticed that he was staying away from them. They constantly asked him what was wrong. He constantly answered that nothing was wrong.

But everything was wrong. He’d been getting too attached. He’d been getting too close. And he couldn’t let that happen. 

It didn’t help that the Sandersons sometimes enjoyed movie nights together, and they loved to cuddle during them. Meaning Orion had to be a part of that. And that he almost got crushed in between them. It especially wasn’t fun when  _ Honey, I Shrunk the Kids _ was a movie choice. It was almost like they were rubbing it in his face.

The Sandersons were  _ close _ . Not that he blamed them; Christian being taken from them, then having them reunite, definitely had something to do with it. But that didn’t mean that they had to make him one of them. He didn’t even know why they were doing it, he wasn’t even a part of their family.

This would’ve been a lot easier if they just treated him that way.

His dependence on them was probably the biggest reason he was getting too close to them; he could barely do anything without them now. Which meant he had to prove to them that he could still take care of himself even if he was tiny. Somehow.

The opportunity presented itself when Bethany, Owen, Gwen, and Kara decided that they wanted to hang out at the park together. Orion chose to join them; if he could prove that he could handle himself at this hangout— which was outside, leaving him vulnerable to the elements— the Sandersons were sure to back off and let him be.

He just had to figure out what he could do to prove it.

“Ugh, is Kiel  _ still  _ helping Charm with that growth thing?” Kara complained when the magician didn’t show up with the five of them at the park.

Bethany shrugged, setting Orion down in the grass in front of her as she sat down. “I haven’t heard anything from Charm about progress on it, so I’d assume so.”

Kara just groaned, flopping backwards onto the ground. “Can they hurry up already? It’s been  _ forever  _ since I last saw Kiel, and there’s so many pranks we have to catch up on!”

Orion scooted a little closer to Bethany, backing up against her leg. Kara’s and Kiel’s pranks were… well, to sum it up, not exactly fun to get caught in.

Gwen laughed. “When you get back to pranking, can you do something that doesn’t involve exploding cookie dough again?” she asked the time traveler. “As delicious as that was, Owen and I spent  _ way _ too long cleaning the library from that mess.”

Owen grimaced. “Yeah, my mom wasn’t happy with that,” he said, taking out a bag of crunchy Cheetos from his backpack and opening it. “Cheetos, anyone?”

The others gladly reached over for some. Maybe he was still wary from the dream, but for some reason, the crunching of the Cheetos made Orion think about how easily they could crush him right now. 

He turned down Owen’s offer when handed a small piece of one. He felt too sick from his thoughts to keep anything down.

He also noticed how they seemed to exclude him in their conversation as they spoke, even if unintentionally. It was like they forgot he existed. Occasionally they’d address him, but it felt as if he was only an afterthought, like he wasn’t really there or was just too insignificant now.

Not that he really cared before if they talked to him, but it really seemed like now they noticed him less. Something about that hurt. And he didn’t like how that felt.

He didn’t understand why he cared so much, though. He was supposed to stay away from them anyway.

They ended up throwing a frisbee around a little while later, and of course, Orion just sat on a tree root by Owen’s backpack, watching them. Sure, he was definitely safer there, but what could he do there to prove himself?

“Heads up!”

“Bethany, that’s too far!”

“Sorry!”

Orion looked up, watching as the blue disk flew way above Kara’s head, the pink-haired girl unable to reach it while jumping. It soared all the way to the other side of the park and over a fence, far out of reach.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get it!” Gwen told them, about to run in its direction.

“No, don’t worry about it,” Owen said, stopping her. “It’s a low quality one, anyway, I can get another one of those for like, a dollar at Walmart. We can just do something else right now.”

Orion continued to stare in the direction of where the frisbee had gone. He couldn’t see it, but it hadn’t curved too much during its flight, so he could probably find it if he looked in the general area where it landed.

“Oh! We should do Janitor!” Kara suggested, the four larger teens walking back to Owen’s bag. “You brought some card decks, right?”

“Of course!”

He jumped down from the tree root to the ground, landing on the soft dirt as Owen zipped open his bag, pulling out two card decks. He wasn’t going to stick around and watch.

“You better make sure you shuffle the deck this time!”

“You do it, then!”

Orion waited until they were all seated, before making his way around them. They didn’t seem to notice him leave, but that didn’t matter.

“First one to organize their cards gets to place theirs down first!”

He had to prove that he didn’t need anyone’s help to survive right now. He needed to show that he was independent, so that he wouldn’t get too close to Christian, to Catherine, or to Bethany. Too close to anyone, in fact. That was a risk he couldn’t take.

“Guys, we  _ have  _ to beat Gwen this time, don’t let her become president!”

“Hey, come on!”

He was going to get that frisbee for them. And once he brought it, they’d realize that he didn’t need anyone’s help. Even being four inches tall, he could be on his own.

It’d definitely take a while, but that was why he was starting now. 

The grass made it around his belly, which was slowing him down a bit, but he trekked on, stomping through. Nothing was going to stop him from this mission.

Hours passed. Or he was pretty sure, at least. The sun had definitely moved in the sky. He wasn’t even halfway to the frisbee yet. But he was definitely making progress at least. Did the others realize that he left?

He shook the question out of his mind. No time to care about that, he had to prove that he could take care of himself, no matter what size he was.

More time had passed, the sun already approaching the horizon. This was taking much longer than he anticipated. But he wasn’t ready to call it quits just yet. He  _ had  _ to get that frisbee.

“Toy!”

Pudgy, short fingers suddenly wrapped around his waist, and he was lifted up into the air pretty rough. He barely had a chance to get a look at his captor as they started running,  _ away  _ from where he had to go.

In the grip of their fist, he was shaken around as they ran. He was about ready to throw up, when he was tossed not so gracefully into a sandbox. With a mouthful of sand, he spit it out, looking up to see who had kidnapped him.

A little girl knelt above him, a bucket in her hands as she filled it up with sand. She couldn’t have been older than four or five.

“You’re the prince who saves the princess from the castle!” A Barbie doll was forced into the sand next to him, the doll dwarfing him as well.

With the girl distracted, he thought he could try to sneak away from her. Turns out he wasn’t fast enough at four inches tall, not to mention how much harder it is to run away on sand.

“No, you stay! I’m not done finishing the castle!” The girl picked him up with ease, placing him back where he was.

Great. He couldn’t even stop a literal child from taking him.

So he just sat there in the sand, waiting for who knew what, watching as the not-so-little girl attempted to build her sand castle. Really, it just looked like a pile of sand. Not like he could do anything right now. Which just made him feel more useless than usual. And the girl was really deciding to take her time with this.

As she poured another bucket of sand onto her pile, she gasped, dropping her bucket. “I need the evil dragon! Stay, dollies!”

She jumped up, hopping out of the sandbox. 

The moment her back was turned, Orion stood up. He had no time to lose; the girl could return any minute, and he was  _ not  _ about to become some child’s plaything. He ran into the edge of the sandbox, almost literally. Climbing over felt like it took more time than it should’ve, but he made it out before that girl came back at least.

Jumping down into the grass below, he took off, running back to complete his mission from earlier.

…if he could figure out which direction he had to go. At this height, he couldn’t tell where he was. If he was bigger, he’d be able to tell where to go, but he knew where nothing was from this point of view. Was he even going the right direction?

He had to hurry, though, before it became too dark. The sun was already setting, and the sky was beginning to darken.

He stopped, looking around. Was there anything that he could recognize as a landmark?

A giant drop of water hit his head from above, soaking his hair. Another one soon fell right after, several feet (or inches now?) in front of him. Wait, was it raining? He could’ve sworn that the sun was just there, or was at least just at the horizon. Wasn’t it?

He looked up, dark clouds now looming overhead, blocking out the sky. How had he not noticed that?

More drops started falling, the rain now picking up. He broke into a run, looking for anywhere for shelter. He was already drenched at this point, his clothes now sticking to his skin.

The ground soon began to shake beneath him, making him lose his balance and fall into the mud in front of him.

“HURRY UP!!!”

Two teenage boys were running his direction, their feet pounding into the ground. Orion quickly turned to the side, hoping to jump out of their way.

A sneaker just barely missed him, splashing into the mud and dousing him. Orion could feel his heart thumping in his chest from the close call, the memory of Dream Christian trying to crush him back in his mind.

He stood up. The rain continued to pour, the raindrops crashing into him from above. The park was soon emptied, not a single person in sight.

He was alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)


	9. It Was a Pretty Bad Idea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orion has regrets.

He was cold. He was tired. He was hungry.

And he was already regretting his decision to try to do this.

He eventually found shelter from the rain under a tree root, though he was still soaking wet. His clothes stuck to his skin, freezing him more than he already was. He curled up as tight as he could, trying to conserve as much heat as he could.

He couldn’t stop shivering, though, and he couldn’t tell if it was just the rain, or if he was actually crying.

Why did he think he could do this?

He was four inches tall, and incapable of doing anything on his own. He really  _ was  _ pathetic.

He didn’t even tell the others of his plan. Would they even notice that he’d gone missing?

Why was the thought of being forgotten so terrifying? It’d be good if the others forgot him, because it’d mean that they weren’t close enough to even be in each other’s thoughts, right?

But that didn’t feel comforting at all. He didn’t want to be forgotten. Hopefully one of them realized he was missing.

He was even more pathetic than he thought.

Couldn’t even survive a few hours outside on his own, and now he had to wait to see if someone even cared to look for him. There was nothing he could do to avoid getting close to people. He was always going to need to depend on someone as long as he was stuck like this.

He hugged his belly tight, hunger gnawing against his growling stomach. How long had he been out here?

Was his nose running? Great, he was sick. Or crying. Did he really have to cry twice in the same month?

He could feel himself growing lightheaded. He laid down against the cold, wet dirt, still shivering and trying to sleep it all away. It hurt too much to move. He just wanted the pain to stop.

But he was also ready to succumb to the darkness.

He didn’t know how long he closed his eyes. Heck, he didn’t know if he even fell asleep. But he knew that at some point, something warm wrapped around him.

Did the rain stop?

“I found him!”

Who was that? Christian? It didn’t really matter. He curled up tighter, the warmth from their hand feeling inviting.

“How is he?”

“I dunno, but it doesn’t look good.”

Catherine?

“Here, take him. I’ll buy some medicine we could give him just in case, make sure he gets home safe.”

He felt himself being gently dropped into someone else’s hands, smaller ones. Bethany’s? Or maybe Catherine’s?

There was more movement as he was pressed up against something. He could feel something beating through.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry I lost you! I swear that’s not gonna happen again.”

He was pressed tighter, the heartbeat more prominent. He felt the fingers curl tighter around his small body, and he let them.

He buried himself deeper into the warmth, and for the first time in how long, he felt comfortable. He didn’t dare open his eyes, not wanting to risk it all disappearing. He didn’t want to move; he just wanted to stay like this forever, and for a good who knew how long, he did.

“Mom, I can still feel him shivering.”

“I’ll give him a warm bath when we get home. I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

“You sure?”

A sigh. “I can only hope.”

He didn’t care too much about what they were saying. He only cared that he was warm.

He felt himself being taken away from the heartbeat. He wasn’t freezing like earlier, but he  _ was  _ cold. He could feel more fingers prodding and pressing at his body, moving his clothes, but he didn’t fight back.

He did inhale sharply, though, when cold water struck his body. He coughed up the water that got up his nose, shivering harder and sneezing.

“I’m sorry, sweetie, but I promise the water will warm up.”

Well, he was awake now. He blinked several times, his vision still a little hazy, but getting clearer.

He was in the bathroom sink. The drain was closed beneath him, warmer water now filling it up. Catherine was standing over him. And _he_ _was naked, oh my God he was naked with Catherine bathing him._

He tried to push her fingers away, but he was too weak to really do anything. Even if he could, her grip on him was firm, even if she was gentle. He had no choice but to let her wash him, her fingertips gently scrubbing his body and hair as she soaped and shampooed him.

Could this get any more humiliating?

After too long, she finally stopped, draining the water and leaving him shivering in the sink.

“Here you go.” Catherine handed him his towel, which was just a piece of cloth cut out from an old rag. He grabbed it quickly, wrapping it around himself, both for warmth and to cover himself. “I’ll get you some clean clothes, just wait there.”

Not like he could go anywhere else. All he could really do was wait in the sink, wrapped in his makeshift towel and sniffling until she returned.

Once he was dressed and his hair was as dry as he could get it, he was brought into the dining room and placed on the table. “I’ll prepare you some of the leftovers from the fridge, I’m sure you’re starving.”

He was. He didn’t even know how long ago since he last ate.

His cheeks were heating up as she walked to the kitchen, his stomach sinking at the thought that they wouldn’t be so worried about him if he hadn’t pulled that stupid stunt. 

“Orion?”

He looked up, Bethany making her way over. She pulled out a chair, sitting down in it, her head low. Her eyes were red and swollen, like she’d been crying; he found that he couldn’t make eye contact, so he just stared down at his feet.

“I’m so sorry I lost you,” Bethany said, almost at a whisper.

And he felt even worse. And it wasn’t from his runny nose.

“I should’ve been more careful, I-I should’ve checked on you, I-I should’ve… I dunno, but— but I just— You probably hate me after that, a-and Mom and Dad grounded me for losing you, and I know that doesn’t make us even, but I-I want you to know that I—”

“It wasn’t your fault.” His stomach flipped. He couldn’t bear to see her upset over something that he should’ve been blamed for, not her.

But she just shook her head. “N-no, don’t try to make me feel better, I-I deserve to—”

“I ran to get the frisbee back.”

She stopped speaking.

He still couldn’t look at her.

“Orion, why would you do that?!”

He winced, her voice beginning to rise. She did  _ not  _ sound happy. He pursed his lips, ashamed to answer.

“You could’ve gotten yourself  _ killed _ ! Do you realize how worried Mom and Dad were?! You’re only a few inches tall,  _ anything  _ could’ve happened to you!”

“ _ That’s  _ why I ran off!” he yelled back, his fists tight. “Because I thought if I could prove that I could actually do something on my own, then you guys would stop treating me like I’m practically fragile!”

“Because you  _ are  _ fragile right now!” The yelling was beginning to hurt his ears as Bethany’s voice continued to rise, but he didn’t care. “Stop being so stupid!”

“I will when you stop acting like I can’t do anything right now!”

“ _ I’ll  _ stop that once you’re back to normal!”

“But that’s all you guys keep doing! You, Christian, Catherine— it’s like you all think I’m useless and dependent on you!”

Bethany slammed her hand down on the table. Too far to hurt Orion, but still too close for comfort. “Because you are!”

“Stop saying that!”

“You could’ve died!”

“At least dying would’ve been better than getting close with you guys!”

Bethany’s eyes widened, and he realized what had just tumbled out of his mouth.

“Why… why do you not wanna…” Her voice was now a lot quieter, Orion almost thought he had lost his hearing. She continued staring down at him, looking a little hurt. “Do you not like us?”

“No— I mean, you guys are cool people, just—” Ugh, stupid feelings! And he was  _ not  _ about to get all mushy with Bethany. “Forget it.”

He turned around so that he wasn’t facing her anymore, sitting down and hugging his knees to his chest as he held back a sneeze. He took in a shaky breath, realizing that he felt like crying again. Why did he have to cry so much this month?

For a while, he thought that Bethany had left him alone, given how quiet it was.

“It’s because of what happened to your parents, isn’t it?” she asked him. “And then my dad…”

He turned his head to her slightly before looking away. No, he wasn’t going to answer.

“I don’t know if you’re trying to deny it, but you don’t really have to say anything. I already read about your insecurities about this stuff in one of the Doc Twilight comics.”

Okay, he  _ really  _ hated the fictional thing now. He turned to glare at her, feeling a little betrayed. What else did she read about him? His deepest secrets? His embarrassing failures during training? That one time when he accidentally called Doc “Dad”? (Not including that weird time with the Possibility Ray, that didn’t count.)

“Okay, to be fair, Mom left that issue on the counter, and I was curious because all the other ones are about Dad, and this one was about you, and I— yeah, this isn’t really helping my case, is it?”

He shook his head.

He watched as she lowered her head to the table, resting it on her arms. “Anyway, what I’m trying to say is just… don’t push us away because you’re scared. Trust me, I’ve been there, for eight years or something, just because I wanted to find Dad and didn’t want anyone else getting hurt. It was probably the loneliest years of my life.”

It never occurred to Orion that the time she spent looking for Christian resulted in a habit and fear similar to his. Both of them had lost parents in their lives, leading to them to push everyone out; besides Charm (because as far as he knew, she’d never open up about this topic even if they tried to get her to) Bethany was probably the only one in their group who understood how he felt.

“But when I met Owen, then Kiel, then Gwen, and everyone else—” She lightly poked his side with a smile. “—you included, well… everything just seemed better, and everyone was so willing to help me get Dad back, then stop Nobody and save the world— er, worlds.”

He turned his body around so that he’d be facing her.

She smiled at him. “Of course, there were times I got hurt: losing Kiel, then losing Owen, finding out Dad was the Dark, then losing him again… but that’s inevitable; we’re gonna get hurt at some point, but it turned out all right in the end. And I don’t regret letting any of you guys into my life.”

Gently, she used her hand to bring him closer to her face, pressing him against her cheek as some sort of hug. “I can’t really tell you what to do, but please don’t let your fear of getting hurt keep us away from you.”

Orion wasn’t really a hugger— not that he could even hug Bethany at the moment— but a part of him wanted to acknowledge that he heard her. With one hand, he gently touched her on the cheek.

It would be hard to keep ignoring the thoughts and fears that constantly taunted him, telling him he could never be close with Bethany, Christian, and Catherine, but he could try. And maybe with Bethany’s help, he could let them into his life more.

But that didn’t mean he had to be all emotional about it.

“That was the sappiest thing I’ve ever heard you say,” he said, pushing a little bit away from her face.

Bethany tried to hold in her laughter, though she failed to. “Shut up!” she laughed.

“Seriously, it’s gross and you should never speak like that again!” But they were both smiling, not actually meaning what they were saying.

“If you don’t like it, I guess I’ll have to be gross and sappy with you all the time!” She suddenly scooped him up in her hands as she straightened up in her seat, smothering him with kisses on his chest, which kind of tickled.

“No!” he cried out between his laughter, trying to push her giant face away, to no avail. “Stop!”

She did. Once he accidentally sneezed in her face.

“Gross!” she laughed, immediately pulling away.

“That’s what you get for being sappy!” he told her, before his stomach soon growled afterwards, reminding him of something. “Wait… Shouldn’t your mom have been back with my food by now?”

Bethany’s face scrunched up in confusion. “Huh… and Dad should’ve been back from the store with medicine a while ago…”

There was a noise from behind the wall nearby. “Shh!” someone shushed from that direction.

“Okay, act natural!” someone else whispered, before Catherine and Christian came in, a plate of food in Catherine’s hand. Both of them were smiling, and it was obvious that they had overheard the conversation.

“Hey, kids!” Christian said, a little too cheerily. “Got the medicine in a reasonable amount of time!”

“And I prepared your food in a reasonable amount of time as well, Orion!” Catherine said, her smile very wide as she placed the plate down on the table.

Still sitting in Bethany’s hands, Orion could see her face turning red. Not as red as Owen’s face could get, but still very red. “How much of that conversation did you hear?!” she demanded her parents.

“What conversation?” Catherine turned to her husband, smiling too obviously and failing to give him a questioning look. “Christian, did you hear any conversation?”

Christian shook his head with a smile. “I didn’t hear any conversation coming from this room!” Part of Orion wished he was big enough to at least tackle Christian for being like this. “But as your parents, we suddenly realized with our amazing parenting instincts that you’re not at fault for losing Orion, so keeping you grounded for that doesn’t make sense. Just keep a better eye on him next time, okay?”

“Dad, don’t act like you just realized that out of thin air, just admit that you and mom were eavesdropping in the next room over.”

He just continued to smile and kissed her gently on her forehead, before looking to Orion. “And you, young man.” He held out his hand by Bethany’s for Orion to climb onto.

He did, though slowly. He gulped, not knowing what Christian was going to do.

Christian raised his hand up so that Orion was sitting at eye level with him. “Now, as your legal guardian in Jupiter City, I  _ could  _ ground you for that stunt you pulled…”

Orion braced himself, waiting for Christian to let him know what his punishment was.

“...but I think maybe an entire night lost in the rain and getting sick was punishment enough, don’t you think?” He smiled gently at him.

Orion nodded, returning the smile before sneezing into his arm.

“Don’t sneeze in my face, too! And let’s make sure that that doesn’t happen again, okay?” With his finger, Christian ruffled his hair, and Orion had to fight the urge to push it away. Even if it messed up his hair, he did kind of like it. He made a mental note that he’d try to allow it more often.

Christian gently let him down onto the table next to his plate. “Now, how about we all have dinner?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you even think all of that between Bethany and Orion was even a little romantic I will stomp you to death with my hooves.


	10. Back to Normal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to see Charm and Kiel again!

It was exciting news for everyone when Charm told them that she had successfully completed the growth ray to change Orion back. It was also a day earlier than they had anticipated, which was definitely great news.

Like last time, Christian and Catherine let the two of them go on their own, as long as they promised to return with a normal-sized Orion. They also decided to bring his shrunken clothes so that those could go back to normal as well so that they wouldn’t have to make another trip to Quanterium.

“Ready to get back to normal?” she asked Orion, heading out the door with him in her hand.

He nodded. “Very much.” He had gotten used to living his life like this, but he’d rather not stay like this forever. He wanted to get back to fighting crime in Jupiter City alongside Doc Twilight and Twilight Girl, and also to being half an inch taller than Bethany.  _ That  _ was incredibly important.

So they went on their way. Like they had about a month ago, they went through the portal to Quanterium, the futuristic city greeting them once again, though this time, Kiel was waiting for them on the other side. He didn’t look too happy, though. 

“Are you okay?” Bethany asked him when they saw him.

There were bags under the magician’s eyes, and he didn’t bother to wink at them. “Charm worked endlessly on her growth ray thing,” he told them as he led them to Charm’s building. “And when she said I’d be helping her, she meant as her guinea pig after she tested it on inanimate objects.”

Orion couldn’t help but snicker at that, Bethany laughing above him.

Kiel stopped, turning to glare back at them. “Oh, I’d like to see you guys laughing after having to be shrunk and grown over and over again, ending up at the height of Charm’s knees for a week, and getting stuck in that room for almost a full day barely able to move after being grown too big to fit there!” From the way he snapped, he definitely did  _ not  _ have a fun month. 

“Why didn’t Charm just shrink you back when you that happened?” Bethany asked him.

Kiel shrugged. “She said that the shrink ray needed to be recharged, but I’m pretty sure she thought it would be funny if she left me there.”

“Is that everything that happened?” Orion asked him. He expected a bit more, considering Charm spent about a month working on this.

Kiel shook his head, walking along the path to Charm’s office once again. “No, there’s a lot more. Like how I’m pretty sure that Charm didn’t actually grow me back to my full height yesterday.”

Bethany smiled. “Yeah, you  _ do  _ look a few inches shorter!” she told him, Kiel immediately halting as he patted his head in fear.

“What?!” he exclaimed, panic in his eyes as he turned around. “You mean I’m short now?!”

Bethany and Orion laughed. “You’re as gullible as Owen,” Bethany said.

Indeed, it  _ did  _ remind Orion of the scene in  _ Stolen Chapters _ where Bethany told her best friend that one of his arms was longer than the other after he messed around as a cartoon.

Kiel just glared at them as he walked, though Orion did notice that he seemed to be measuring himself against some of the objects that they passed.

Orion somewhat recognized the layout of one of the buildings that they entered eventually, including most of the path they took the first time. They made it to where Charm was waiting fairly quickly, though she was in a different room this time; this one was much tidier, a giant machine that looked like it shot lasers against the wall on the far side.

“Took you guys long enough,” she said, turning on the machine. A panel opened up on the side, revealing some sort of screen and keypad.

“That’s the growth ray?” Bethany asked her.

Charm nodded, patting it with a smile, a dreamy look in her eyes as she stared at her creation. “Beautiful, isn’t it? It’s amazing what science can achieve!”

After a few moments, she shook her head, turning to the two of them with a more serious look. One that Orion was more used to. “This isn’t portable like the shrink ray since this is the first of its kind, but it’ll still get the job done. Hopefully I’ll be able to create one that  _ is  _ portable, or maybe find a way to combine it  _ with  _ the shrink ray along with settings to switch back and forth, or—”

“Charm!” Orion interrupted, his hands cupped around his mouth.

Charm blinked.

“Orion, remember?” Bethany said, holding him up a little higher to the Quaterian President.

“Oh, right. Him.”

She looked a little disappointed, but Orion ignored it; he was going back to normal size, and that’s all he cared about.

“Just place him in that square I marked on the floor.” She turned back to her invention, typing into the keypad, along with checking something in the panel on her robotic arm, muttering to herself. “Size about 16.625 times greater, weight about 140 times greater…”

“Good luck, dude,” Kiel told him from the entranceway as Bethany set him down in the square that Charm had mentioned. “Growing is just as painful as shrinking.”

He turned back to him. “Wait, what?!”

“Everyone, stand back!!!” Charm announced, pressing a button on her growth ray. Kiel quickly pulled Bethany back, the two of them standing just outside the doorway.

The machine quickly fired up, a green ray shooting out and hitting him where he stood. As it did, he yelled out in pain, learning very quickly that Kiel was right. It was like every part of him was being stretched apart, and like weights were being constantly added onto him that he couldn’t stay standing.

He didn’t black out like he had when he shrank, but part of him wish that he did. He could barely sit up, feeling like something was pulling him. He fell back down trying to stand up.

“Yeah, he’s going to need some help getting home,” Charm said, Bethany and Kiel entering the room. “Given the proportions he shrank to, his weight was a lot lighter than it should’ve been compared to his weight-to-height ratio at his regular size. Now that he’s back to normal, he’s experiencing a lot more gravity than what he adjusted to, so he’ll have trouble just standing on his own.”

Bethany and Kiel helped him to his feet, one on each side of him, his arms wrapped over their shoulders. Orion felt like his knees could buckle under his own weight if it weren’t for them supporting his body.

“But he’ll feel a lot better after a little bit!” Kiel added helpfully.

“Or more than that,” Charm said. “He’s stayed small much longer than you have anytime this month, so he might need more time to adjust.”

They let him sit outside the room as Charm also regrew his clothes. Once they were packed into the bag that Bethany brought with them, she helped Orion up, Kiel taking them back to the portal to the nonfictional world, and even helping Orion make it back to Bethany’s house.

Once there, they brought Orion to the couch, where he collapsed onto the cushions, closing his eyes as Bethany explained to her parents what Charm had told them. He was extremely exhausted, and he wanted to sleep so badly.

“All right, then,” Catherine said. “He can continue to stay with us until he’s adjusted. Oh, and thank you for helping with this, Kiel.”

“It’s no problem, Mrs. Sanderson!”

There was a gentle nudge on his shoulder. He opened his eyes a bit. 

“You hear that, kid?” Christian said with a smile. “You’ll be staying with us a little longer, until you’re able to stand on your own, all right?”

Orion nodded, not really caring.

“I’ll work with you on some simple exercises while you’re here to help you adjust, okay?”

Orion nodded again, this time closing his eyes and nodding off, not listening to anything else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter to go! What do you suppose will happen?


	11. When You’re Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There’s one last thing Orion needs to do.

Sleeping in the observatory again now felt a lot lonelier than it had originally been.

He was back in his room at his normal size, everything just how he remembered it, but none of it felt right anymore. For some reason, it was now occurring to him how large and quiet the observatory was. It hadn’t bothered him before, so why was it gnawing at him now?

Once he readjusted back to his normal weight, he really thought he’d be happy to get back to Jupiter City. It had been his home since he was born. It was great to be back, but it just felt like something was… missing.

In the morning when he woke up, he half expected to be in Christian and Catherine’s room again, on their nightstand. He wasn’t.

Not that he wanted to be tiny again, but he  _ did  _ kind of miss seeing them every morning. He missed going to the table for breakfast, hearing them talk about whatever together,  _ talking  _ with them about whatever together.

He missed spending time with Catherine. He missed helping her with chores, watching movies together, singing along horribly to her albums. (He didn’t really miss her limiting his coffee intake, but that wasn’t so bad at least.)

He missed getting to hang out with Christian more outside of them being Doc Twilight and Kid Twilight. He missed just doing simple things with him that didn’t involve fighting crime. He missed just being casual with him, like they were many years ago.

He missed spending time with Bethany, not that he’d ever admit that to her. Even if she was reckless, both as herself and as Twilight Girl, she  _ did  _ make life pretty exciting. Plus, spending a lot of time with her really wasn’t that bad.

God, he was getting sappy. He didn’t really mind though, it was just a little annoying.

An idea in mind, he quickly got dressed in casual clothing, quietly sneaking out of the observatory so that bystanders didn’t see. Luckily, it was early morning, so hardly anyone was up. Barely anyone in sight, he made his way to the portal to the nonfictional world.

Bethany was definitely going to make fun of him for this, but he didn’t care.

Finding his way to the Sanderson house on his own took some time, but he eventually made it. He rang the doorbell, flexing his fingers as he waited. Why was he so nervous about this? They weren’t strangers, he knew them very well.

The door eventually opened, Catherine greeting him. 

“Oh! Orion!” she exclaimed, her eyes lighting up. “Didn’t realize you were going to visit us so soon! Is there anything you need?”

“Is Christian home?” he asked. “I need to talk to him about something.”

Catherine nodded. “Yeah, he’s available, I can get him for you.” She motioned for him to come in. “You can wait inside, if you’d like.”

Orion opened his mouth to tell her that he was fine waiting outside, but his stomach growled loudly before he could make a sound. Right, he didn’t have breakfast… He’d been so fixated on coming here that he didn’t think to eat. He could practically hear Owen and Kara scolding him in his head for skipping what they claimed to be the most important meal of the day.

“You know what, why don’t you eat with us?” Catherine offered, leading him into the house. “Bethany and Christian are making omelets. Ever tried theirs? They’re pretty good!”

She brought him to the dining table, letting him sit down and getting him a plate. She went over to the kitchen, out of Orion’s sight.

“Honey, if you can, please come to the dining room. There’s someone there who’d like to speak with you,” he heard Catherine say.

He heard a sigh from the kitchen. “Is it Kara again?” Christian’s voice asked. “Because I’m not in the mood to hear her asking what is and what isn’t technically illegal right now.” 

Wait, Kara came to this house asking  _ what _ ?!

“Don’t worry, it’s not.”

“All right then, just a sec!”

He could confront Kara about that later. Right now, he had something important to discuss with Christian.

The man stepped out of the kitchen, a smile appearing on his face as soon as he spotted Orion. “Nice to see you back so soon!” he said, walking over and sitting across from him. “What is it that you need to talk about, kid?”

“Er…” He couldn’t stop squeezing his fists, constantly clenching and unclenching them. He sighed. It's now or never. “Remember how after the whole thing with Nobody, you offered to let me live with you and Bethany and Catherine here in the nonfictional world?” he began.

Christian raised a brow. “Yeah, what about it?”

“Well, I was… thinking…” This was nothing like him, why was he actually doing this? “I know I said no before, but…” He stopped talking, a long silence between them. For some reason, it felt way too embarrassing to finish the statement.

Christian seemed to understand, though. “Are you asking if you can live with us?”

Orion nodded, taking in a deep breath. “If it’s okay with you. And still possible. If not, that’s just fine, I’m pretty okay at the observatory, and I—”

“It’s more than okay, kid.” 

There was something very comforting about Christian’s smile. Orion couldn’t help but smile back.

“Dad! I finished the omelets without you!” Bethany called from the kitchen. She came into the dining room, a large plate of omelets in her hands. At the sight of Orion, her eyebrows shot up. “Is that why you told me to make more omelets, Mom?”

Catherine nodded.

Bethany set the plate down on the table, smiling at Orion. “Hey, how’s Jupiter City now that you’re normal size again?”

Orion shrugged. “The same, pretty much.”

“You wanna tell them why you’re here?” Christian asked him gently. “Or would you rather wait until after breakfast?”

He really would rather wait to say it, but what was the point? He’d have to tell them eventually. “I think I’ll just say it now…” Better to get it over with now, right?

Christian nodded encouragingly, and Orion took in a deep breath. “I was asking if… if I could live here… with you guys…”

Neither of them moved for a moment, Orion beginning to think that he was crazy.

After a while, Catherine grinned; she seemed thrilled at the thought. “You’re more than welcome to do so!” she told him.

“Already told him that,” Christian let her know.

“Maybe he could have one of the guest rooms,” Catherine continued.

Christian nodded. “We can also do some shopping tomorrow for anything he’d like to decorate his room with,” he added. “How’s that sound, kid?”

Orion nodded. “I’d like that. Thank you.”

“Wow, you’re getting pretty sappy,” Bethany told him as her parents continued discussing plans, getting an omelet for herself. “Did my sappiness rub off on you?”

Orion lightly punched her in the arm. “Shut up!” he replied, but he was smiling. Both of them were smiling.

And as he grabbed one of the omelets and bit into it, he had only one thought: he was home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that’s the story! And as you can see, it’s part of a series because I fell in love with the idea of Tiny!Orion and I have one-shot ideas for him. They can only fit in an Au where he doesn’t end up growing back, so keep an eye out for those!


End file.
